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Dear Friends of Reading to Kids,
Last week we
opened the
December 11th reading clubs RSVPs, and we still have six open spots to fill! Zoom Santa will be there, too!
We definitely want to have enough volunteer readers, so please RSVP today at readingtokids.org for our "Family & the Spirit of Giving" virtual reading clubs, even if it's your first virtual reading club!
We must continue to limit RSVPs for these virtual reading clubs only to returning
volunteers - people who have volunteered with us at least once before
at any of our previous face-to-face or virtual reading clubs. See below for how virtual clubs work.
(If you are already signed up but can't attend after all, please
click here to cancel ASAP so someone else can take your place!)
We may get to add more reader spots as more teachers commit to hosting for us on December 11th.
If you check our website and find all reader spots are full today or over the next eight days, please keep checking back so we'll have enough volunteers.
STAND-BY READERS WANTED!
If all spots are full you can also let us know at
info@readingtokids.org if you are willing to be a
"stand-by" reader for Saturday, December 11th. A "stand-by" reader is someone willing to fill in for any grade at any school if we have any last-second reader cancellations.
Stand-by readers must be available that Saturday morning from 8am to around 11am and willing to read via Zoom to any grade at any school. It's a really important role!
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HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WORK
Because LAUSD has not yet determined when volunteer organizations can return to on-campus events, we continue to use Zoom for these virtual reading clubs.
The reading clubs will be hosted by participating teachers at each school
using their school Zoom accounts, but you will need your own Zoom account to
join the reading club. If you don’t already have a Zoom account, you can sign up
for a free, Basic account here:
https://zoom.us/pricing
IMPORTANT:
You will need to use Zoom from a desktop or laptop computer. The phone and
tablet versions of Zoom do not have the necessary features for our virtual
reading clubs.
Ideally, anyone who
volunteers for these virtual reading clubs will be comfortable using
Zoom. If you wish to test out your Zoom connectivity prior to the
reading clubs, we encourage you to email us at
info@readingtokids.org so we may do a brief test run with you before the
virtual reading clubs.
The Friday before the
reading clubs you will receive a link for a Zoom "check-in" session with your
Site Coordinators that will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. that Saturday.
Click here to review the schedule for these virtual reading clubs.
Once you and your fellow
volunteers are checked in, that same Zoom session will have a Zoom Volunteer
Orientation / Virtual Reading Club Training that will start promptly at 9:15
a.m.
At 9:30 a.m. you and your
volunteer partner will leave that Site Coordinator session and then join the
teacher's Zoom session. The teacher will host the Zoom call and make you
co-hosts. The first 30 minutes will be for troubleshooting and a prep session
for just you and your reading partner and the teacher.
The kids will join that
same reading club Zoom session at 10:00 a.m., and it will likely go until 10:30
or 11:00, at the teacher's discretion.
After the reading clubs
end you will then rejoin your Site Coordinator's Zoom call for a brief wrap-up.
To screen share the book
you will be reading with the children, you will need Adobe Acrobat or the free
Adobe Reader from
https://get.adobe.com/reader.
We will provide you a PDF
of the read-aloud book so you can prepare for the reading clubs. You can see the
read-aloud book titles for this month at
https://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksMonth.php.
We will provide at the
above link activities and simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would
prepare to lead the kids in an activity and craft, though you may not actually
do a craft, depending upon how the Zoom session goes. The kids may just want to
talk to new faces!
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2021 ANNUAL FUND DRIVE UPDATE:
NEARLY HALF WAY THERE TODAY;
THANK YOU TO TWO MORE ANGELS!
After many donated to us on #GivingTuesday, we are approaching half way to our 2021 Annual Fund Drive goals! To date we have raised $25,435 donated from 240 donors!
All who have donated can see their names listed on our
2021 Annual Fund Drive page. Donate and we can add your name there, too!
We also thank and congratulate two more 2021 Annual Fund Drive Angels, Mark May and Alyson Beckman!
They both became Angels through their Facebook fundraisers by gathering donations from at least 10 of their friends. Thank you to them and everyone else gathering donations for Reading to Kids!
Our Annual Fund Drive lasts until December 31st, and our ambitious goal this year is to raise $60,000 from 600 donors.
Here's
how you can help:
1) Make a pledge to donate by check or donate online
today by visiting our
2021 Annual Fund Drive. Contributions of any amount are
greatly appreciated!
2) Show your support by asking friends and family to
contribute!
Visit our
2021 Annual Fund Drive
page and look under the "Help us Fundraise!"
header for resources, including information on creating your own
personalized fundraising page on Facebook, our handy
donor sheet for raising money with your friends and
co-workers,
tips for fundraising, and so much more.
Once they know about Reading to Kids, many of your
friends and family will want to donate -
we just need you to ask!
Also, if your workplace matches donations to nonprofits, please share
with them your donation, and ask them to consider matching it. In this way you double your donation and share with others your enthusiasm
for Reading to Kids!
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NINE RUNNERS NEEDED FOR THE
2022 LA MARATHON,
13.1 MILE CHARITY CHALLENGE,
OR 5K!
Do you know any runners? Are you a
runner? Please forward this email to them
and ask them to join
Team Reading to Kids in the 2022 Los
Angeles Marathon on Sunday,
March 20th!
We're looking for at least three more marathon runners and six Charity Challenge runners (the last 13.1 miles of the course) to join us in one of the best marathons in the country.
If either of those distances is too daunting, you can join us in the LA Big 5K (that's just 3.1 miles) near Dodger Stadium the day before the marathon on Saturday, March 19, 2022.
You can
share this Facebook group with any of your runner
friends to encourage them to join our team!
If you or a runner you know is interested in
becoming one of our fundraising runners or
creating a fundraising team, please email
Chris Martin at
marathon@readingtokids.org!
IMPORTANT NOTE: To register to run
on behalf of Reading to Kids, you
MUST receive from us a special web address
to use when registering on the Los Angeles Marathon website.
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